they re highly trained, highly skilled, their situational awareness is very high. for this crew, it s very difficult to imagine what happened. it was sunday afternoon, the hotshot crew was behind the fire line when like most afternoons a thunderstorm blew in. this one was different, it packed what the fire department calls monsoon winds. and the crew was trapped on the wrong side of them. late in the day, a thunderstorm developed over prescott, and the wind shift of 180 degrees on these firefighters and 40 to 50 mile per hour gusts instead of staying out of the way, the fire blew right toward them. the hotshots drilled for such a disaster. in this training video, they show how to deploy the fire shelter, a last resort move. they dove under the shelters, but it wasn t enough to save them from the ferocious wildfire. all but one were killed. the remains of 19 bodies found. some still in their shelters. we lost 19 of our family members. it s a nightmare right now.
firefighters across the region including the hotshots from station 7 to prescott, located 30 miles away jumped into action. the hotshots, a team of 20 sent into the heart of the fire, to cut a line on the eastern flank and save other homes. they re highly trained, highly skilled, their situational awareness is very high. for this crew, it s very difficult to imagine what happened. it was sunday afternoon, the hotshot crew was behind the fire line when like most afternoons a thunderstorm blew in. this one was different, it packed what the fire department calls monsoon winds. and the crew was trapped on the wrong side of them. late in the day, a thunderstorm developed over prescott, and the wind shift of 180 degrees on these firefighters and 40 to 50 mile per hour gusts instead of staying out of the way, the fire blew right toward them. the hotshots drilled for such a disaster. in this training video, they
right now still a lot going on in arizona. people coming to grips with this terrible tragedy, and, you know, this town is really trying to move forward afterp an unimaginable loss, thomas. what are they saying about weather conditions as they get back out there? well, you know, yesterday there was some monsoon winds may have flared this up. right now, there s still hot, dry conditions, and the firefighters hope to be able to make some headway on this fire today. really it s anybody s guess right now. still 0% contained and really don t know when they re going to be able to get ahold of this thing. nbc s gabe gutierrez reporting. mike, there s one guy out left out of 20. 19 out of 20. i personally have almost no frame of reference for tragedy. we re used to reading about fires and firefighters responding in large cities but the explosive action of that fire like a bomb exploding